with Vedera, One for Hope and Dear Oceana

By Simon McCormack

Launchpad on Tuesday, Jan. 24, $8 (all-ages): If DJ Shadow was in an up-and-coming alt.rock band, the music emanating from his garage would sound a lot like electro-rockers Mute Math. Despite using self-made instruments and a dilapidated keyboard, the New Orleans quartet is steeped in seamless production and Shadow-esque samples with a drum machine background--all of which make for songs that sound as much like dance music as straightforward rock. Paul Meany's Stingish vocals are set on "permanent echo mode," which gives them an airy, ethereal quality similar to Minus the Bear's Jake Snider.

Paving the way for the new breed of bad seed

By Simon McCormack

If former Dead Head and self-proclaimed hippie Mike Burke has learned anything in his 25 years in the music biz, it's this: "Hippie bands can play anywhere. You could be a hippie band and play in your living room at three in the morning and your neighbors won't call the police because it sounds good," Burke postulates, "But if you're a death metal band or a thrash band or a punk band, your neighbors will call the cops within 15 minutes—even if you play at four in the afternoon."

The Emergenza festival in Albuquerque

By Amy Dalness

The club is packed—not an inch left to squeeze in anyone else. The lights dim, you nod to your fellow bandmates and run on stage. The drummer comes down hard on the beat, the stage fades away and the music takes over. The audience jumps, shoulder to shoulder, moving as one giant entity. This is what music is about, you think. You rock through the 25-minute set, the audience screams with delight and hands shoot powerfully into the air. Two contest reps jump on stage and start to count the hands as the roadies shuffle you off stage to get ready for the next band. You've had your half hour--was it worth every penny?

On their second album, lap steel, banjo, harmonica and accordion lend The Elected (which is masterminded by Rilo Kiley's Blake Sennett) a hand in an effort to make some incredibly twangy '70s-feeling love songs. Unless alt.country is your one-and-only, I wouldn't recommend this entire album, but try, especially if you're going on a road trip, to get your hands on track No. 2, "Would You Come with Me," which saves Sun, Sun, Sun from the verge of mediocrity.

Yule Logs and Jingle Balls • Holly Rebelle • Mena Domina • burlesque

By Devin D. O'Leary

Gilded Cage Burlesk and Varieté is definitely getting on Santa's Naughty list with Yule Logs and Jingle Balls: A Very Risqué, Very Glittery, Very Burlesque Ode to the Holidays. Burlesque dancers, sideshow performers, drag acts and more join forces to celebrate this most sparkly of holidays in grand style…